Moran’s campaign has $2.3 million in cash already stored for 2016 race

“Senator Moran is grateful for the support so many Kansans have demonstrated because of his consistent, conservative leadership," said campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Patton in an e-mail.
Bo Rader
The Wichita Eagle

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s re-election campaign announced Wednesday that it has more than $2.3 million in cash on hand about a year and a half away from the 2016 election.

Moran, a Hays Republican, took in more than $914,000 during the second quarter of 2015, a period that covers April through June. He has received individual donations from 3,513 Kansans, coming from all the state’s 105 counties, during the first two quarters of the year.

Moran started the year with about $1.4 million already in the bank.

“Senator Moran is grateful for the support so many Kansans have demonstrated because of his consistent, conservative leadership," campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Patton said in an e-mail.

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By comparison, U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts had less than $1.5 million cash on hand at this point in his most recent re-election campaign and had taken in about $567,000 during the second quarter of 2013.

Roberts went onto win re-election after surviving tough challenges from Milton Wolf, a Leawood radiologist and tea party favorite, in the Republican primary and Greg Orman, an Olathe businessman who ran as an independent with a centrist message, in the general election.

During the 2014 election, Moran chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which played a key role in mobilizing support for Roberts in both the primary and the general election.

In the year since his primary defeat, Wolf has repeatedly attacked Moran on social media, fueling speculation that he might try another bid for Senate in 2016. Wolf has accused Moran of lying and called him a Democrat in disguise.

Wolf mocked Moran on Tuesday on Twitter for making public statements about a corruption scandal dogging FIFA, the organization that runs the World Cup, on the same day that President Obama announced an agreement with Iran to lift trade sanctions in exchange for curbing its nuclear program – a deal of which many Republicans remain skeptical.

While Wolf has made frequent attacks he has made no clear indication he plans to run. Neither has the Democratic Party coalesced behind a candidate for the general election.

Regardless, Moran is building up a war chest for 2016 to defend his seat after serving one term in the U.S. Senate. Moran won the seat previously occupied by Gov. Sam Brownback in 2010 after previous stints in the U.S. House and Kansas Legislature.